Carol White: The Bardot of Battersea
- Submitting institution
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The University of Westminster
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- qv890
- Type
- C - Chapter in book
- DOI
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-
- Book title
- Sixties British Cinema Reconsidered
- Publisher
- Edinburgh University Press
- ISBN
- 9781474443883
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- March
- Year of publication
- 2020
- URL
-
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Sprio’s chapter contributes to critical debates on Sixties British cinema in general and female stardom in particular. The volume it appears in makes a crucial re-evaluation of 1960s British Cinema and the chapters address subject matter rarely written about before. This is the first chapter written that considers the significant role that the actress Carol White played in British cinema history, especially in the 1960s. Sprio’s argument aims to foster a different understanding of working class femininity at a time when such representations had never been seen before in Britain. She makes thorough use of original archival material, such as the study of press photographs and an oral interview with the producer Tony Garnett who was very instrumental in helping to forge White’s early career. This interview was particularly useful in helping to give shape to aspects of the chapter that goes on to argue why it was that White’s success was limited to Britain. As well as providing an historical overview of all of the films that she stared in, the argument explores both her huge success in Britain and her eventual decline in America where she died a very early death. Additionally, Sprio analyses how White’s relatively short-lived stardom was related to the different ways in which British female actresses were marked out by class associations that were not easy to translate to non-British audiences. White’s life as an actress was integral to the cultural changes happening in Britain, and Sprio’s is the first academic publication to candidly state her importance in relation to these cultural shifts. In this sense, the chapter challenges assumptions about Sixties cinema stardom, provides new insights, and helps to reflect on a different way of thinking about the cultural transformation of the Sixties in Britain and beyond.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
